Investment issues for new pension system

By Joseph MariathasanIP Asia July 2009

India is finally putting into place a radical new pension system aimed at providing near universal coverage. The New Pension System (NPS) proposed in the OASIS (Old Age Social and Income Security) report (2000) represents an important break with traditional ideas about the organisation of pensions systems in India. Its growth and development is set to have a profound impact on India’s capital markets as well as providing security in old age to a population seeing unprecedented changes in social structures as economic growth takes off. As G. Pradeepkumar Chief Marketing Officer of IDFC Investment Advisors argues: “The absence of institutional players such as pension funds has been a major problem with Indian equity markets. The new pension system will, hopefully, fill that gap some day.”